The worldwide market for MDF is increasing at a faster rate of 12% – 16% per annum. The international market prices of MDF range from $200 – $300 per m3 ($260 – $400 per ton).MDF has the durability, look, texture, richness & feel of seasoned-treated timber. For this reason, MDF is called engineered wood.

Similarly HDF is High Density Fibreboard, which is used for laminated flooring. HDF boards are ideal substitutes for natural timbers & they are widely used in high – strength floorboards as well as furniture decoration. HDF board markets are also growing at a phenomenal rate of 20% every year.

RAW MATERIALS FOR MDF / HDF -

Firewood from nearby plantations & forests including rubberwood;

Wood cuttings & trimmings from sawmills;

Sawdust & furniture industry wastes;

Round logs of smaller dia (10 cm to 30 cm)from social forestry;

Bamboo;

Cotton stalks; &

Sugarcane bagasse;

There is a scope to set up 25-50 MDF Plants in India over a period of next 5 - 10 years, as against only 2 Plants in operation now.

MDF from wood -

India has 19% of its land by way of forests. A wide variety of trees are grown here, due to the availability of abundant solar energy. Hence a number of MDF Plants can be set up in various parts of the Country to convert these wood wastes into wealth. Since MDF replaces wood & plywood, the pressure on virgin forests are reduced & a new social forestry can be developed near the MDF Factory to meet the future wood requirements.

India has 33 million hectares of wastelands, where the rainfall is above 400 mm per year. Even if 10% of these wastelands are utilized by raising social forestry, it can provide 8.25 million tons of raw material, which is sufficient for more than 100 MDF production lines.

MDF from Bamboo -

India is just next to China in terms of Bamboo cultivation, with 8 million hectares of the forest area (14% of the total forest area of 56 million hectares) under Bamboo. In addition, 2 million hectares of Bamboo is outside the natural forest area. The estimated growing stock of Bamboo in India is about 140 million tons and the yearly availability is 35 million tons. However, only 20 million tons are accessible to transportation every year.

In recent years, the demand for Bamboo from paper & other industries has come down to 7-8 million tons, creating a surplus of 12-13 million tons per year.

Bamboo is available in abundance in the States of Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal & in the North Eastern States. Nearly 66% of the Bamboo resources are located in the 7 North Eastern States. Madhya Pradesh has the highest Bamboo forest area of 2.4 million hectares. The other States having major growing stocks of Bamboo are Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, & Arunachal Pradesh. Uttaranchal has also significant Bamboo forests and has plans to bring more areas under Bamboo plantation to develop a sizable resource base.

MDF FROM COTTON STALKS –

India is one of the leading producers of cotton in the world. Every year, about 23 million tons of cotton stalk is generated in the country as agro-waste, which is either burnt in the field or used as fuel by the farmers in their houses.

In India, cotton is grown in 9.22 million hectares, mainly in Gujarat, Maharasthra, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka & Tamilnadu. During 2005-06 season, the country’s cotton output was at a record of 244 lakh bales of 170 kgs each. With the average cotton productivity of 450 kgs/hectare, the availability of Cotton stalks is estimated as 2.50 tons per hectare.

MDF FROM BAGASSE –

There are 450 Sugar factories in India. A 2,500 TCD Sugar Plant generates 1,20,000 tons of bagasse with 50% moisture, on 160 days of working. Much of this bagasse is burnt to fuel the boiler. Of late, the surplus is used for power generation. Some sugar factories sell surplus bagasse to the nearby paper factories.

Bagasse is valuable cellulose, which deserves better value-addition than simple burning. The notional price of bagasse is taken as Rs. 500/- per ton, which may increase to Rs. 1,100/- per ton on co-generation. If the same is converted into MDF, the price realization will be Rs. 16,000/- per ton.

Bagasse contains 30% pith, which is not suitable for making MDF. The same can be used for the Boiler, along with baled sugarcane trash in place of bagasse. It is possible to bale 90,000 tons of trash by a 2,500 TCD Sugar Factory on 180 days of working. With the de-pithed bagasse of 1,05,000 tons (with 50% moisture), an MDF production line of 50,000 m3/year can be run for throughout the year.

Though bagasse has short length fibres, the recent technology enables MDF production from washed & refined bagasse fibre.

GLOBAL CAPACITY SURVEY OF MDF –

Following are the aggregate world capacity of MDF-

Region

MDF capacities(In million m3)

2001

2002

2003

2004

Australia
&

New
Zealand

1.69

1.73

1.73

1.73

China

5.42

7.02

7.36

8.66

South
East Asia

2.60

2.76

2.85

3.21

North
East Asia

1.72

1.72

1.72

1.72

South
America

2.06

2.97

3.22

3.58

Europe

11.52

11.92

12.46

13.18

North
America

5.07

5.06

5.45

5.81

Rest
of the world *

0.48

0.61

0.64

0.79

Total

30.56

33.79

35.43

38.68

* Includes Africa,
Indian sub-continent, Middle East.

The global potential demand for panel boards is estimated at 250 million m3 per year and the potential market for MDF alone is 100 million m3.

The gap of 150 million m3 can be diverted to particleboard, plywood & OSB.

MDF Production lines worldwide –

Year – 2004

No. of mills

Average size of each MDF mill

Africa

4

63,000
m3

Middle
East (Israel)

1

86,000
m3

South
America

16

1,79,000
m3

Asia
Pacific

-
Australia

5

1,56,000
m3

-
China *

186

45,000
m3

-
India

2

58,000
m3

-
Indonesia

7

75,000
m3

-
Iran

1

30,000
m3

-
Japan

4

1,60,000
m3

-
Korea

8

1,36,000
m3

-
Malaysia

11

1,18,000
m3

-
New Zealand

4

2,27,000
m3

-
Sri Lanka

1

1,00,000
m3

-
Pakistan

2

26,000
m3

-
Thailand

7

1,25,000
m3

-
Vietnam

1

54,000
m3

-
Europe

64

1,87,000
m3

Canada

7

2,15,000
m3

Mexico

1

60,000
m3

United
States

18

1,89,000
m3

World Total

350 mills

World1,10,000 m3

Average

*The
total no. of MDF Plants in China exceeded 400 during 2004, but the remaining
are small lines of 5,000 – 20,000 m3 capacity.

INDIAN MARKET POTENTIAL FOR PARTICLEBOARD –

The Working Paper by FAO estimated the demand for industrial round wood in India (other than fuel wood) as under –

As per FAO, the requirement of sawnwood by 2005 will be around 50 million cubic meters, which is equal to Rs. 60,000 crores in monetary terms. As against this, the availability of sawnwood in India is only 30 million cubic meters & the balance is imported, draining valuable foreign exchange.

Bulk of the industrial round wood in India is utilized by the saw milling industry, consisting of more than 23,000 units. It is estimated that each sawmill will generate 100 – 120 tons of sawdust & wood cuttings per year on an average and make available totally 2.5 million tons of wood wastes, which can provide necessary raw material for more than 50 new MDF Plants in India.

The projected demand for MDF by 2005 is 6,70,000 tons, whereas the combined capacity of 2 Plants operating in India (Delhi & Calcutta) is only 1,17,000 cubic meters (88,000 tons). Some shortage is covered by MDF imports of around 3,00,000 tons.

MDF PRODUCT STANDARDS –

The product standard of MDF made in the Plant offered by ‘Goodrich’ meets ‘China National Standard GB/T 11718.2 - 1999, which is equal to EURO MDF Board (EMB) Standard 1995, the third Edition. For India, it is well above the Indian Standard i.e., IS 12406 – 1998 ‘Specification for Medium Density Fibre Boards for general purposes’.

MDF production line complete with more than 100 individual equipments lined up for continuous production, with a capacity of 30,000 m3/year (22,500 tons), 50,000 m3/year (37,500 tons) or 80,000 m3/year (60,000 tons)

The cost of imported Plant & machinery is mainly from China, with certain imported items out-sourced by them from Europe. In case all the Plant & machinery are sourced from European suppliers, the minimum Plant capacity will be 1,20,000 m3 / year & the total project will be Rs. 135 crores. In case the customers prefer Refiners from Austria & Sanding lines from Switzerland, the same will cost Rs. 5.00 crores extra for 15,000 m3 line, Rs. 6.00 crores extra for 30,000 m3 line, Rs. 7.00 crores extra for 50,000 m3 line & Rs. 8.00 crores extra for 80,000 m3 line. China has already supplied 400 MDF Plants, which are capable of producing European quality Boards.

At the time of widespread deforestation & with timber reserves under pressure from the growing worldwide demand for wood & panel products such as plywood, MDF offers low-risk entry into a potentially lucrative market.